Political Letter: Vote no on Prop. 16

Whether you love it or hate it, Proposition 13 (the famed property tax initiative) did what the initiative process was intended to do – give the taxpayers an alternative to a Legislature that wasn't listening. In the decades since, the initiative process frequently has been hijacked from the taxpayers by special interests. Propositions are often written in complicated language, are poorly explained and are difficult to change. They should only be used for narrowly defined, critical issues that our legislature has missed. That is why it is safer to vote against an initiative than to vote for one.

PG&E sponsored Proposition 16 (at our expense) to limit competition. PG&E is a monopoly with a state-guaranteed profit. It is hard for a capitalist to support limiting competition to benefit a monopoly. PG&E has a clever “taxpayers should vote” slogan, but is it really about us voting or about making it easier for them to defeat a potential competitor with a minority vote? Minority rules? There have been reports of SmartMeter hacking, higher SmartMeter bills, computer and data losses from SmartMeter installations. PG&E declined my request to remove my SmartMeter until their problems were fixed. They did try to reassure me about their security against hackers and explained that the higher bills are from a coincidental increase in rates.

I was impressed that PG&E was willing to talk with me honestly, but the timing of the SmartMeter program and Proposition 16 seems very coincidental. I encourage you to vote no on 16.

Larry Ozeran
Yuba City